Red Bull boss Christian Horner say Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is lucky to alive after he narrowly missed being hit by debris from the rear tyre of McLaren’s Sergio Perez which exploded on Hangar Straight during Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

Horner’s comments come as Formula 1 comes to terms with the shock of several tyre failures, many which happened at high speed, at Silverstone to raise questions about the drivers’ safety.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Perez all suffered left rear failures. Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez had a left front failure while Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, who won the race, and Alonso both reported they had problems but were close to the pits so they were able to change tyres before an issue occurred.

“It’s a safety issue now,” said Horner in the BBC Radio 5 Live post race Programme. “We need to think of driver safety. Make no mistake about it, Alonso is a very lucky boy to be going home. It’s not right. Forget performance, forget who has an advantage and who doesn’t. The sport has to be safe. The most important thing is driver safety. I’m surprised they didn’t stop the race in many respects.”

F1 race director Charlie Whiting said that he nearly did red flag the race on safety grounds. “It was quite close to being red-flagged,” he said. “It did occur to me to do that. We haven’t seen a failure like this before; we have seen other types of failure – and that is what has been addressed. So we need to analyse it very carefully to see if we can establish the cause.”

FIA president Jean Todt has demanded that tyre supplier Pirelli meeting of the Sporting Working Group, which was already scheduled to take place on Wednesday, in order to find a solution.

But ahead of this Sunday’s German Grand Prix, Whiting said a solution is needed sooner. “Pirelli have got to analyse it, to try and find the cause,” he said. “We need to make decisions earlier than Wednesday.”

On Monday, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said the FIA will allow Pirelli to conduct two three-day tests so they can get to the bottom of the problems: “They (Pirelli) have complained in the past when these tyres have delaminated – which is certainly nothing to do with it (what happened yesterday).

“They’ve said they’d like to sort it out, but they don’t have a chance to do any testing because of these silly restrictions we have. But I spoke to Jean Todt over the weekend and he has said ‘Let them test’.

“So he has allowed them to run two three-day tests between now and… well, when they want, to try to do something for next year, as well as this year, so that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

The medium and hard tyres which were used at Silverstone have also been used in Malaysia, Bahrain and Spain this year. In Bahrain, Hamilton suffered a failure – although it was a different to those suffered at Silverstone – as did Massa.

Alonso was lining up a pass on Perez when the Mexican’s tyre failed. The Spaniard took avoiding action and was lucky not to be hit by rubber and the metal belt. “That one with Sergio I was so scared and so lucky because I missed the contact by one centimetre,” said Alonso.

McLaren’s Jenson Button added that these failures are putting driver’s safety is at risk: “We’ve had five tyres over the last few days, it’s a big issue and something that needs to be sorted out,” said Button. “Incidents happening at 300kph, like for Checo [Sergio Perez], is not right. It’s not just dangerous for the driver in the car, it’s dangerous for all the other cars. The cars behind shouldn’t get hit by rubber that has metal in it. It’s got to change.”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh added: “F1 couldn’t possibly not respond to the events of this weekend. We have to be concerned about the safety of our drivers in this sport.”

And Rosberg said: “Well, we shouldn’t get into that situation. We need to do what needs to be done to sort it out and make the tyres last.”

Massa, who made an electric start from 11th to run fifth on the first lap, had his failure in the middle of Turn Five. “What has happened today is unacceptable,” said the Brazilian. “It was very dangerous for me and all the drivers racing. It’s not the first race we had this problem. I already had two tyre problems in Bahrain and another problem here.

When asked if he was surprised no one was hurt, Massa replied: “In a way yes. We were lucky that in all the incidents, the driver was able to carry on and not crash. But you have corners at Silverstone where if it happens, it could be much more dangerous and you could have a big accident.”

And on the subject of whether drivers could boycott this Sunday’s German Grand Prix, Massa said: “For sure we will discuss about that. I don’t want to say that now because I don’t want to create a lot of problems but this is something that for our safety we can do.”

He added that things would need to change for next month’s Belgian Grand Prix at the high speed Spa Francorchamps. “I hope they change something for Spa,” he said. “If you have this problem at Eau Rouge, you don’t know what is going to happen.”

Hamilton, who recovered from his tyre failure when leading to finish fourth, said: “It was the first time in my career I’ve ever felt it was dangerous. “After my incident, I was definitely nervous for the rest of the race that the tyres might go again. Safety is the biggest issue. It’s just unacceptable really. It’s only when someone gets hurt that someone will do something about it. It’s a waste of time talking to the FIA and if they don’t do anything that says a lot about them.”

Comeon Sebee that's just rubbish. The kerbs haven't changed and the other categories experienced no such problems.

It's like sayin. Just stand still a minute whilst I punch you in the mouth- it might not hurt, but then again it might knock a few teeth out or it might knock you out cold -your skill getting cracked on the ground & you could die.. Why don't we just try it..In the meantime 100million viewers may even find this entertaining.

I just don't understand why Charlie isn't calling for yellow flags to clear the track - I would think that is the 2nd biggest problem.!

I'll take a road bike and put 40 PSI of pressure in the tires and run over 50m of glass and get a puncture guaranteed.

I'll take same road bike with same tires and put 140 PSI of pressure in the tires and run over the same 50m of glass and likely not get a puncture.

Do you understand what difference pressure makes? Do you understand pushing performance limits? Do you understand what it means to have tires on high speed kerbs under low pressure apply F1 type power through the tire to a jugged steps?

There are variables we're dealing with, and I think there is more to this story than just Pirelli's fault - done and done. I think the blame is not so black and white, and certainly not enough to change tires mid way through the championship. Did FI have any tires blown up? How many teams had tires blow out, and how many didn't? Where is the majority?

When Horner and Vettel first pushed for the tyres to be changed on safety grounds I was sceptical, but after watching yesterday's events I completely agree with them (as do others it seems - Ferrari etc, although Lotus have been strangely quiet on the issue).

Look at the picture above of the damage caused to Perez's sidepod - want to imagine what that could do to a helmet?

On this occasion, I agree with you Sebee - something of a rarity lately :-).

Horner has an agenda and is using the media to promote his cause. No one wants to see drivers hurt, or worse, but if Horner was so worried about driver safety he could have taken the decision to withdraw them from the race. Funnily enough, as his driver was a beneficiary of another drivers issue with tyres, he allowed them to continue racing. Red Bull did increase tyre pressures by 2psi though, which might suggest they were running low pressures and that exacerbated the problem.

All teams were advised by Pirelli to increase tyre pressure during the GP. Tim and Sebee you never cease to amaze me at how you can turn every article into an anti Christian Horner article. Pirelli tyres explode and you blame the guy who has been saying they are dangerous from way back since the first delaminations. If people had listened to him and we had got the new tyres trialed in Canada this farce would never have happened.

I think that you maybe exaggerating, just a tad, when you accuse me of turning every article into an anti Christian Horner article. This particular post refers to something that Christian said. I believe he is being disingenuous, and said what he did in order to progress an agenda he has had for a while - namely a change to the tyres, which will potentially be an advantage to his team. It's not just me that felt he was trying to get the change pushed through to his own benefit, Lotus, Force India and Ferrari vetoed the change for that very reason.

As I have said more than once in this thread, if CH genuinely felt the situation was life treatening, as he appears to say in this article, then he should have called in his cars without delay. Something he failed to do - which leaves us with two possible explanations. Either he is unbelievably cavalier with the lives of his drivers, or he did not infact consider the situation as dangerous as he now claims. I favour the latter conclusion.

Incidentally, Pirelli have now published their analysis of the tyre issues this past weekend. In your post above you quite rightly state the tyres should not fail under normal usage - if the teams are using the tyres in a manner contrary to that recommended by the manufacturer, is that normal or abnormal usage?

First, let's start with the fact that amount of "hate" toward CH is amazing on sites. I never ever have hate toward him, or anyone for that matter.

Second, I don't even think I mention anyone by name in my post here, do I? I just say in general that the events are being used to progress an agenda. I think it's being done in a knee-jerk fashion. The process is not open enough for us to be aware. It may be that pressures were too low. That something crumbled from the edge of the kerb, that somethign was out on the track, etc. etc. Yet the immediate solution is new tires? Mid way through the championship? I still don't like it.

Excellent point Tim. Higher pressure, less give in the tire - no issue on the kerm.

I believe the pressure to gain performance has resulted in lower air pressures perhaps below tire specification to be used by teams. Thus allowing tires to flex/bend and be subject to the kerb issue.

What's interesting is this, lots of talk about the tires but no one is saying if they GP was entertaining or not. I'd like to see that vote: Did you walk away after 2 hours saying - was it an enjoyable way to spend 2 hours? 🙂

I have to admit to a guilty pleasure Tim. Those exploding slo-mo shots...well, I enjoyed them quite a bit.

I like seeing something pushed to its limit and fail under stress. I rememeber a while back an engine failure on an STR - both banks emmitted crazy amounts of smoke. It was amazingly beautiful. I know it's strange, but if things aren't failing, I just don't think we're pushing things hard enough!

How about Monisha or Frank - they don't seem to be on the tv all the time, whinging on like Horner! Is that enough for you ?

Don't misunderstand me, I realise where you are coming from, and of course it's all part of the game. The trouble with Horner, for me, is that enough is never enough for him. His team has trounced the opposition for the last 3 seasons and it looks very much like a 4th is on the cards. Yet there he his again, trying to influence the rule makers to his advantage. As I said, if he genuinely felt the drivers were in danger of losing their lives, why didn't he withdraw the Red Bulls from the race?

Seriously Sebee, there's a time to get on your high horse and there's a time to step off. We've seen what happened to Felipe when a component hit him in the melon. Now the tyres are spewing backwards into oncoming traffic (and melons). The tyre thing was fun for a while but its now out of hand in certain situations. The Hazard has been identified and the Potential Risk assessed. If nothing is done to mitigate the risk now then someone may face manslaughter charges one day. The powers that be have a duty of care to uphold. It's no longer about the fans and the show mate.

I agree. After the tyre debacle at Indianapolis, the incumbent tyre manufacturer/supplier should have a duty to provide fit and proper tyres. They should not require 100% unanimous support from teams to change something to prevent issues of a safety matter. They MUST make the changes before they fit another tyre to a wheel rim and sod the teams. Get on and use what you have been given. Unfortunately, Pirelli are being made to look like the villain in this piece. Yes, they made a change for 2013 that has proven to be a mistake but their attempts to revise that change have been blocked by teams that couldn't agree on a pizza topping if their lunch depended on it.

Would you rather wait till someone gets hurt? If it wasnt for Force India, Lotus and Ferrari this would already be sorted and the 2013 GB grand Prix would not have been a farce. What if someone gets hurt in Germany? How many years have the kerbs been there without issue? I think your being reckless with the driver ssafety, a WDC is not worth someone getting hurt.

Issues, doesn't mean blowouts. There have been high deg issues and de laminations where the tyre has stayed inflated. You made the point that the kerbs had been used a number of times without blowouts occurring. I made the same point about the tyres, and nothing you say changes that fact. So what evidence do you have that it's a result of tyre design or manufacture?

No, Pirelli have changed the tyre construction, thereby suggesting that the construction of the tyre was a contributing factor in the blowouts, rather than as you put it 'it was the tyres fault'.

I would lay a large bet that someone has been out at the Nurburgring with an angle grinder making sure that there are no sharp kerbs. On this basis you could just as easily claim 'it's the kerbs fault'.

Pirelli have just admited it was the tyres fault and as such are changing them. That's all the evidence most people will need. The real annoying thing is last years tyres will help RBR and Merc much more than the revision proposed at Montreal. Its a shame Force India and Ferrari blocked that because now their disadvantage will be greater.

The facts are that although there has been issues with tyres generally in previous races none have been dangerous, otherwise this hysteria would have occurred then. So on the basis that this is an issue isolated to Silverstone my question is what has changed because exactly the same tyres have done thousands of miles of running before last weekend without issue. The arm chair experts can't see beyond the simple answer that it must be the tyre but I can't see how people can draw such conclusions.

The tyres have to be fit for purpose for every track, we know they blow up under normal usage on one track so why take a chance on the others. Maybe the tyres will work perfectly on all other tracks except for one more and maybe at that one someone will get hurt. What's wrong with being prudent. It's not about tyre ware, Pirelli said the changes they wanted to make would have no difference in performance, they can even make them softer if they want for all I care. Blowouts, delaminations and easily puncturing are all dangerous. Just because you dislike SV is not a good enough reason to take an unnecessary chane with driver safety.

You know, in NASCAR there have been instances where Goodyear told teams to use certain pressure range, and they found that lower pressures gave better performance, so they were going with lower pressures. Then tires went boom and who took the blame?

Could we have the same scenario of teams chasing performance by using the tire outside of specifications?

Em am I imagining tyre failures with the same tyres during the Barcelona weekend and in previous weekends.....no I'm not. You can't take unnecessary risks with driver safety so Pirelli need to do something to ensure the tyres are safe!

There have been safety issues with these tyres all season although not to this extent, it's time for this to end. I don't see why Pirelli even had to go create new 2013 tyres, all they had to do was change the compound choices from last year and they could have provided the required 2/3 stop races with last years rubber.

If not for Gary Andersons really foolish "analysis" nobody would be talking about kerbs today. This is the same Gary Anderson, after putting out such a reckless and silly excuse yesterday, he has changed tack faster than a race horse with a crazed hornet up its bum. Thats Gary Anderson for you.

The entire F1 ecosystem needs to be more responsible and cerebral about what they put out. Drivers lives don't cost twopence.

It was a terrifying incident, Alonso did well to react to it. Kimi Raikonnen actually got hit by some debris from the JEV incident but luckily it wasn't huge debris.

James, there seems to be word going round that Sauber and Mclaren found Kevlar in the tyres yesterday; how is that possible given some of the teams vetoed the changes? Ted Kravitz mentioned it on Sky and there seems to be a few messages going round on twitter about it. Any truth to it?

The construction is so clearly different from what it was at the beginning of the year... I didn't see one steel belt in all that debris, only dry weave that looked a lot like kevlar or similar fabric.

airbag suits for 2014. In case of accident drivers turn to Michelin Man...

They wouldn't need to wait until 2014 - the riders in Moto GP already have/use airbags in their racing leathers - and those boys are really tough. Bit off topic, but did you see Lorenzo this weekend? Broke his collar bone in 3 places on Thursday practice, flew to Barcelona for an operation which took place at 2.00am on Friday and raced on Saturday with a plate in his shoulder and came in fifth!

For sure F1 was close to having another fatality after what happened in Canada which would have been recklessness of the highest order.

It's good that lessons have now been learned by all concerned and hopefully we shall never hear of the wretched tyres ever again.

Actually, we should be thankfully for the recent goings-on because without the tyre explosions, Pirelli would never have changed the 2013 rubber plus they would have possibly kept bringing softer and softer tyres each yeah which tyres would have favoured the gentle teams.

Also lets not forgot the Mercedes 3 day test at Barcelona that invariably brought back in-season testing which lots of teams have been asking for.

So yeah, it appears everything has been working for the future good of the sport.

P.s.

It's a known fact cats have nine lives and humans don't

Maybe Alonso should seriously consider retiring for am not liking his recent close shaves with destiny.

just fix the tyres and stop with the drama. F1 made a full of itself this weekend, while 24 hours before we so a race at assen, full of accion, with a rider doing what it seemed a superhuman effort. So motogp 1, f1 0. And it's not the first time this happens this year.

Horner is using safety again as a tool to get the tyres he needs to win another championship.

Everybody hollering how we must change tires at once, but they are forgetting that what happened on Sunday was actually a result of bringing new tires without testing them.

Pirelli didn't bring the old tires. They brought modified steel band tires with a different bonding process and few more tweaks.

If they actually brought tires from Bahrain and Spain, we wouldn't have had any of these explosions. Perhaps not even delaminations, since we didn't have a single one through the whole Spanish GP, which is the toughest one on the tires.

I think that is a red herring. Plenty of other series are able to race at Silverstone without those issues. F1 itself has raced on that configuration with no problems. It has to be something to do with this seasons compounds.

Yes let's have durable tyres that can be raced upon properly and consign these glorified balloons to the skip. Ecclestone and the FIA are to blame for this as it was at their direction high degradation tyres were introduced and the racing has been a poor substitute ever since.

What amazes me is that the people commenting about the tyres also note that the race was a cracker as if the two things are mutually exclusive. The fact is that F1 has always been about tyre conservation to some degree or another. If they do as you suggest the teams with the biggest budgets will build the fastest cars, pay the biggest wages and recruit the best drivers, and the results, and races will reflect this. By definition to race requires evenly matched cars, or a variable(s) that shake up the natural order. Otherwise what's the point? They may as well compare bank balances at the start of the year and hand out the trophies.

Just because the formula is written to maximise the entertainment does nothing to diminish the achievement. At the end of the day they all race using the same regulations and therefore come podium time those getting the trophies have done the best job on that particular day. What's the problem with that?

None of us tyre are experts but you are wrong on several counts: Bahrain saw three blow outs and one in Barcelona and whilst they all have high speed characteristics- non of them have continuous combinations like Silverstone where there is high throttle and change of direction for longer! There will of course be other factors such as tyre pressures, the apparent lack of cleaning up debris which I feel has been ridiculously ignored at many events. The fact remain there is something still fundamentally lacking with the tyres as Pirelli have been rallying for months to get more testing.

As for teams with the biggest budgets ... Isn't that exactly what's happening now.. Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes- so that in itself is a non argument.

If your just playing devils advocate .. Your doing a really good job.. If your just being non committal your doing an even better job at that.

Well if you actually bothered to read what i wrote you'll see that i said evenly matched cars or variables to shake up the natural performance order. One of those variables is high deg tyres meaning that performance over a 200 mile distance is equalized. You need to get your facts right. Look at the data on overtakes and the number of winners over the last 2 years.

The race was a farce and what people want is tyres that don't blow up randomly potentially causing serious injury to the drivers. Pirelli have a brief or safe tyres with 2/3 stops per race and that's what they should deliver.

I'm not a tyre expert, it's just I saw the Brittish GP last year and this year and noticed that this year a lot of tyres blew up. I thought it interfered with the championship and made for a farce of a race as well as being dangerous for many of the participants. There is another GP on Sunday and we need to be sure this isn't going to happen again. Pirelli want to change the construction of the belt from steel to Kevlar and because this was blocked the tyres sent as safe as they could be. I don't want harder compounds, just safer construction. Although I am not a tyre expert I suspect all the team principals who are blaming the tyres and Pirelli (who want to make changes) and the FIA who are helping Pirelli make changes know a thing or two.

Where is your evidence that Pirelli haven't produced a safe tyre? I assume you're referring to the multiple blowouts at the British GP. I guess you're another of these tyre experts all of a sudden. Well you're not so I suggest not jumping to simple conclusions before the facts are known. One fact you might wish to consider is that the 2 compounds used yesterday had been used at 3 previous GP, where conditions were hotter than at Silverstone, and at tracks with comparable high speed corners. These were exactly the same tyres, 3 GP distances plus quali and practice on every car in the field. Did you see blowouts? No, so what changed? Who knows, I don't but i suspect it's a combination of factors and that Pirelli isn't the only issue.

Now you see the mistake you've made there is not reading what the original comment and my reply to it.

I was commenting upon the point that racing was artificial. With regard to the tyres this relates to the criticism that they are not durable enough, and that this characteristic means drivers cannot race to the full potential of their cars. Nowhere did I refer to the tyre blowouts seen at the British GP.

Mea culpa? If you really think about it Sunday's delaminations can be partly blamed on Ferrari and Reb Bull. They were the 2 teams that didn't agree with the rest, thus preventing Pirelli from introducing the new construction.

That's a cracking idea. I'd expand it further and say that each team is allocated a fixed number of testing kilometres based on their finishing position in the previous season. The higher you finish, the less testing you are allowed.

Agree nobody has come out of this covered in glory. FIA shouldn't be meddling with the tyres to artificially spice up the racing, Pirelli should be delivering a product fit for purpose and insisting on testing, and the teams need to stop trying to turn every situation into a competitive advantage.

You've got the teams wrong, I'm afraid. Ferrari, Lotus and Force India were the teams opposing the change. RedBull started pushing for a change already months ago and all they got was criticism (sore losers etc.). It appears they had a point.

The main thing is nobody was hurt but i think its safe to assume that we need a change to the tyres sooner rather than later, sad to see some people still defending the tyres just because they dislike SV. Is it really worth another driver being seriously hurt just so you dont have to see SV win the championship.

Yeah, it's wired alright, I know SV isn't the most popular guy but I thought the cheering when his car failed was a bit much. He never really had a row with any britts and no Brit took the lead or benifited fom him stopping.

That sort of crowd reaction is nothing new. I was at the British GP back around late eighties early nineties (can't remember exactly which year)when Senna retired with a gearbox problem, I think - the roar from the crowd was louder than the engines!

By that logic we should have a street race in Baghdad? And why bother with seatbelts and helmets. A 22 men should not be put through unnecessary risk or serious injury just because you dislike Sebastian Vettel.

Agreed there's no guarantees in life and you never know when your ticket is going to get punched, but there's a difference between expected and acceptable risk and unexpected and unacceptable tyre failures.

I have been a supporter of Pirelli, and risk is and always has been a part of the sport, but this is too much.

When a guy like Alonso says he was scared, I pay attention.

To be fair Sebee I have read your other comments and if I'm right I think the thrust of your argument is let's have no knee-jerk reactions.

That's fair to say and I agree 100%, but what happened at Silverstone does need looking into.

'Derek Warwick, president of the British Racing Drivers Club, said he had been out to look at the kerbs and dismissed as "absolute rubbish" reports that sharp edges might have cut the tyre sidewalls.

"These kerbs have been in since 2009. We've had thousands and thousands of cars go over these kerbs and they have been absolutely fine," Warwick, told Sky Sports.

"We've had them checked by the FIA [International Automobile Federation] and they comply completely," he added amid talk of a possible driver boycott of the next race in Germany.

Warwick said the Silverstone race – in which strips of tread containing metal belts flew off the tyres and narrowly missed the heads of drivers following behind – had at one stage looked like a disaster in the making.

He pointed the finger at Pirelli, the three teams who prevented the supplier from introducing a stronger version of the tyres for the race at Silverstone and Ecclestone.

"I think Bernie, the FIA and Pirelli are bringing the sport into disrepute and they need to have a serious look at themselves and change these tyres and not expect all the teams to agree," said Warwick.

"Take it out of the teams' hands and put safe tyres on these cars," he added.

Ferrari, Lotus and Force India have resisted moves to change the construction and compounds of the 2013 tyres, which other teams say are too quick-wearing and not hard enough, because their cars are working well with them.

"The teams need to look at themselves," said Warwick. "They made the decision not to bring a new tyre. I kind of blame Pirelli but they did their best to bring a new tyre to Silverstone and three teams voted against it."'

It is too simplistic to solely blame the tyres, without proper evidence. Do you remember Red Bull running tyres at too low pressure, and running excessive camber angles. All of this against the recommendation of Pirelli, and then having problems with tyre failure. I think Adrian Newey's order to increase tyre pressure after the incidents, was rather telling.

I've never had tyres on my road car explode in spectacular fashion because I had the wrong pressures. Drivers lives are not that cheap that we can excuse such (under any circumstance) for F1.

In engineering a product, it is the standard practice to make it take several times the stress of normal usage without failing. Any product that repeatedly fails under predicted usage is either fake, countetfeit or just rubbish.

Quade - "I’ve never had tyres on my road car explode in spectacular fashion because I had the wrong pressures."

Yes I've seen it many times on cars, and even more with trucks.

Quade - "In engineering a product, it is the standard practice to make it take several times the stress of normal usage without failing. Any product that repeatedly fails under predicted usage is either fake, counterfeit or just rubbish."

Do that in F1 and your car ends like a Sherman tank, and the same weight. Remember Colin Chapman's design methodology, that a car should cross the finish line and then fall apart. I was just pointing out, that it is on the record, that teams have been going against the usage recommendations given by Pirelli, and they had problems. It can't be definitely ruled out in this case.

And Warwick has no vested interest in deflecting blame? There may well have been hundreds of cars over those kerbs but it's also true that the two compounds used yesterday were used at three previous GP and there was no failures like we saw yesterday. These tyres have not changed but the failures still occurred so something is going on. My guess is that it's a combination of issues, but just like Warwick I'm no expert on tyre construction so let's leave it to those who are before drawing conclusions.

Do you pull out weather charts and temperature records whenever you say that you think it's going to be a warm day today?

If I said with absolute certainty 'this Warwick guy is 100% correct' then of course I'd try to back it up, but I don't need evidence to say that I only tend to agree.

But for the record:

“These kerbs have been in since 2009. We’ve had thousands and thousands of cars go over these kerbs and they have been absolutely fine” - agree (it's fairly self-explanatory).

"We’ve had them checked by the FIA [International Automobile Federation] and they comply completely" - Agree, because if they didn't comply then they would have been changed or there would have been no race (that's politics aside of course).

“I think Bernie, the FIA and Pirelli are bringing the sport into disrepute and they need to have a serious look at themselves and change these tyres and not expect all the teams to agree” - the first part maybe, the second part probably, the third and final part definitely.

“Take it out of the teams’ hands and put safe tyres on these cars" - agree on both, especially the latter.

“The teams need to look at themselves. They made the decision not to bring a new tyre. I kind of blame Pirelli but they did their best to bring a new tyre to Silverstone and three teams voted against it” - agree, not that I blame any one team in particular, but as a group they're kind of like a bunch of little kids who can't work together.

For what it's worth it turns out you were right. Apparently it was a combination of issues, and a lot of those issues were due to the teams doing their own thing against recommendations. Again, kind of like a bunch of little kids 🙂

James I know it may be considered moot, but when a tire completely lets go as it did several times, is there a way for anyone to check if teams were running the tires to Pirelli recommendations, or if they were pushing things much too far? I just want to know if the Pirelli criticism is fair in the first place or if certain teams should share the blame.

Pirelli conductes continuous monitoring, and teams do close cooperation with them so that's not a case, the other thing was chamber that RBR did push to the limit last year that made some dangerous moments.

Well if I was a driver I wouldnt turn up this weekend unless I saw action taken to solve the tyre problem.

Its a joke really. I cant understand what Pirelli's motive is for these tyres. Surely it is a better advert for their tyres to make a strong reliable compound. Everyone knows it can be done and in respect Pirelli have intentially made tyres to try and create better racing, but its no fun to watch when drivers have to nurse their tyres. Look at Kimi for example. All it takes is for your tyres to be a lap older and your looking at a major performance deficit. Just a couple of laps shouldnt make this much difference.

It used to be great when drivers could ring the necks of their tyres and really push them. I dont want to see a fatality before something is done about it.

Safety must always come first. Where the blame lies for this, I'm not sure. Is it Pirelli? The Kerbs? The Teams? The FIA? Lack of testing? Some combination of those mentioned is likely, but it is besides the point. Tyre failures need to be reduced to an absolute minimum, especially those that result in the entire belt of the tyre flying at other drivers, spectators or marshalls. This will take a combined effort of circuit administrators to ensure that the track is safe and will not harm tires. Complying with FIA regs is not enough. FIA regs are not the word of god. Perhaps they need to change. Pirelli may need to force the issue, they have the ability to refuse to supply if they feel they are unsafe, just like Michelin did. The teams and FIA need to force the issue on safety grounds now.

This isn't 30 years ago. F1 cannot wait for another Imola '94 before it acts. I hope I am not the only one who does not want to sit down on a sunday afternoon to watch his heroes get hurt or worse.

The tires are fine. The teams aren't doing enough pit stops. They can't expect Pirelli tires to last more than 10 laps without exploding. What were they thinking? This is the new and exciting PIRELLI f1.

It seems everybody is suddenly a tyre expert, when in reality most people have zero knowledge about such things. I think it's only fair to the tyre supplier to allow them time to investigate before we start to sling mud in their general direction. Speak of mud I see Vijay has piped up saying the failures were not dangerous. I say mud because clearly such a view is as thick as sea mud. I very much hope someone puts him in a car with a rear tyre failure at 200 mph. I'm sure there would be skid marks, and probably some marks on the track as well.

To think... Teams of some of humanity's best engineers and scientists work entirely independently to make the best racing machines that the rules allow. The only two critical components in these fantastically complex machines that are common to every single car are the ECU and the tyres. Despite this the leading cars consistently lap within fractions of a second of each other. It's incredible.

But as soon as one of those components – the supplier of which the competitors have no direct control over – fails in this way, the entire endeavour of designing and building a Formula 1 car is profoundly undermined.

If there's one thing that's surprising about this scandal it's the amount patience being granted to Pirelli. Formula 1 is not a patient place, and that's how we like it. Sporting infringements are met with immediate penalties, there's no 'yellow card'. Under-performing drivers get binned and forgotten without ceremony. The same is true of engineers and support staff.

Perelli's relationship with Formula 1 should be terminated at the end of this season, the sport has lost faith. But that's only the start.

Give teams individual and direct choice over their tyre supplier. As with engines, keep specifications tightly regulated but promote fierce competition. Let the under-performers fail, let the rule-breakers be punished, and let the best competitor win. That's why we're here.

The worrying think is not only the unsafe tyres, but also that they are manipulating the Championship through their illegal Mercedes test. Before that test Mercedes were 4th in the Championship and now they are second. How long 'till they'll be in the lead? They won 2 from 3 races after the test while they won 0 from 5 before that test. Facts don't lie.

James could you possibly tell us what the tyre pressures window is that Pirelli recommend and weather the teams are actually running the tyre's according to the guidelines that Pirelli provide.

Most teams engineers called for tyre pressures to be increased as soon as the problem became evident. This just makes me wonder weather they were following the guidelines laid out by the tyre manufacturer as under inflation would stress the sidewalls dramatically.

I am not saying the tyres are fine, they appear to be overly fragile. But (you knew there was a but) dollars to donuts the teams will be partly to blame for the problem. They will, I suspect, be using the tyres in a manner not recommended by Pirelli, eg excessive camber, tyre pressure too low, reversing the tyre directions etc.

Cool heads are required to resolve this issue, not knee jerk reaction. Lets wait for the results of the investigation before jumping to conclusions.

If Alonso had moved to the left of Perez instead of right he might have been seriously injured now. Imagine a flying belt of rubber and other material hitting a drivers face at that speed. In some previous posts, I had supported these tires based on only the degradation and tire life. But now it is a serious safety issue and I was hoping that they will red flag yesterdays race after Hamilton and Massa's tire explosions.

Todt said that approval is being sought, so as I understand it the answers are no and yes respectively, but - in my humble opinion - what's the point of being a president if you can't overrule a committee?

It just seems so unfair now that Mercedes are /still/ being punished when they took Charlie Whting's advice, and yet Todt appears able to change the rules (to suit Ferrari?). Mercedes should be praised and paid for their help, when other teams refused to help or to authorise changes which Pirelli wanted.

I would like to hear from Mercedes whether they would have been allowed to take part or not - I had the impression that they were not.

I don't believe that they broke the rules intentionally, as they had permission from Charlie Whiting and the FIA legal bods, but I accept that this was a grey area, and still is when Todt can facilitate a rule change as tyre issues have become clearer.

They did break the rules with the using a 2013 car bit, but I can't count the number of times I've broken a rule in order to do the right thing...not that Mercedes didn't have any self-interest at all, but I like to think helping Pirelli was the greater part of it.

Anyway - again as I understand it - since this is no longer a YDT Mercedes would have been allowed to participate in these revised tyre tests, but have themselves elected not to.

Have they really. Well my point was that you're not a tyre expert, neither am I so what qualifies you to jump to the conclusion that it was the sole fault of the tyre, rather than the tyre being a contributing factor of many, or another issue entirely?

Pirelli haven't jumped to any conclusions. Their qualified experts have carried out an investigation and concluded that the tyre construction could be improved to prevent further issues.

Your point is a bit like guessing that Man United will win 2-0 before a match, happening to be right and then claiming that you can see the future.

Reading these comments is quite worrying but I will never blame those teams who were working well with these tyres.

In my opinion the whole issue is why FIA decided to change 2012 specs for more pit-stops. Pirelli were commissioned to produced a more degrading rubber. It produced a disintegrating rubber but still the spark started from the FIA and it has to help Pirelli solve the problem.

2010 is still considered by many as the best season in formula 1 because it had pure racing. None of that tire and refuelling nonsense. The conditions created themselves and it provided for a fantastic season with a four way shoot out at the last grand prix. Something we have never seen with the degrading, exploding pirelli tires, not to mention providing extremely confusing races (4 stops for goodness sake)without a clear outcome to the very last lap unlike in 2010 where it was clean proper racing without artificial aids. (I would keep kers, it's small enough to defend and attack without making passing a walk over.) bring back proper racing, #BringBackBridgestone

If I were the boss at Pirelli I'd be absolutely livid at this point in time.

It looks as though F1 might be heading in the right direction with more in season testing and rules changes to allow tyres to be changed without the unanimous agreement of the teams.

If they want the cars to make 2 pitstops per race, then write that into the rules, why do we need degrading tyres to achieve that. It robs the F1 fan of potentially amazing racing. I want to see the top drivers on the planet racing hard, right on the ragged edge using every last bit of skill and cunning to take or maintain places. I want to see engineering people given enough space to invent new ways of building things that my children might get some serious benefit out of in a decades time (like an amazingly efficient engine)

I wanted to see Vettel try and catch and pass Hamilton, I wanted to see what Massa could do from his great race start, instead I got to wonder about who's tyres would go next and whether there'd be a huge crash, if I want that kind of 'entertainment' I'll go watch NASCAR thanks.

F1 teams are hungry, passionate, driven (no pun intended) groups of people who will take and do anything they can to get the fastest car they can, and if that means blocking tyre or other rule changes to try and keep a minor perceived advantage then that's what they are going to do. If it means running tyre pressures a little lower that might not be within the range Pirelli says is 'safe' then they'll do that as well.

Testing shouldn't be banned - it should be mandatory and subsidised for all teams. The F1 business makes enough money to pay for testing immediately after lots of the GP on the calendar. Logistics costs are kept to a minimum cos the teams are there already, they can sell tickets for a Monday test day to recoup some of the extra cost, Pirelli get good data with relevant cars, teams get to iron out problems better but they still don't have free reign to test as much as they want.

Pirelli should give all the teams an allocation of tyres for the season. They should be tyres that are durable enough to last an entire grand prix that don't shred off so many marbles. If we had less marbles, then more track is available to race on and more overtaking opportunities arise.

Have a 'tread depth' test for each set of tyres at the end of each GP and tyres that fail are binned. You run out of tyres in the season and need new ones, fine, here are your new tyres, and a 10 place grid penalty a la engines/gearboxes.

This whole problem is easy to fix, make tyres much more durable, make 2 pitstops mandatory, allow teams to test in season in a structured capacity without letting the big spenders throw money at the problems and 'buy victory'

I don't want 'more passing' I want more entertainment, more thrills, more suspense I want to be flat out amazed at what these drivers can do on four wheels. Passing is only a small part of that equation and it gives me the sadface thinking about how the F1 marketing people have focused on such a small part of the big picture and are letting their myopic vision of the sport I love ruin the sport.

At the end of the day it's sport. We have hugely talented engineers and hugely talented drivers and we should let them race, let the entertainment take care of itself.

Imagine if the teams had a group class action against the FIA for their "silly rules" (Bernie) on tyres, which have left Pirelli with mud of their face and has cost the teams millions of dollars in repairs /replacement and lost points which is also dollars.

germanys not a problem, they should have been out there first thing monday morning with the angle grinders just to take off the rough edges running fore/aft of direction. the curbs dont need drastic changes. racing is safer and buys the tyre manufacturer some time till eau rouge...............

i wouldnt call it defacing, the curbs are still there still high still bumpy and all that theres just less of a sharp dropoff onto the green concrete / fake turf / grass whatevers there. it could easily be a problem in any formula as the tyre is very vulnerable in that area, it just happens that f1 is the(?) one of the most powerful formulas with 900hp trying to acclerate the wheels whilst sliping on a knife edge has showed up the issue. its only the drop off the curb that needs moding not the curb itself......

The kerbs have been the way they are for DECADES. It is the same for all other formula's that race there too, and make no mistake about it, Silverstone is one of the most raced cirquits in the World. It hosts all sorts of different races all year round, and guess what? They all use the kerbs without issues.

Why should it suddenly change, because Pirelli tyres are rotten?

Pirelli should accept that their 2013 tyres are substandard and get it.

I heard someone (possibly Newey) saying that the thread belt, with the steel weighs 3kg! Just imagine that! 3kg! What Horner said is no exaggeration, that could EASILY have killed Alonso if it hit his head, or Kimi when behind JEV for that matter. The spring that hit Massa in 2009 only weighed 1kg and look at the damage it did

3kg is a lot, but what if there was no steel in the tyre in the first place? I believe Pirelli added kevlar and removed the steel for Silverstone, as many comments above suggest but did not inform anyone - how could Hamilton's tyre explode into pieces at Silverstone and leave no remnant of a steel belt?

Pirelli have a replacement tyre with a revised construction. It was tested during the Pirelli/Merc tyre test. The teams have run the tyre in free practice at the last two races, (limited by the weather). The teams only have to agree to it being introduced. The teams with cars that are gentle on their tyres do not want to change because the new construction, (more like 2012), will reduce the disadvantage for Red Bull and Merc.

The family of fatally injured f1 driver Chas Sterling today announced that it would seek redress in the courts. Sterling was killed when his car's rear tyre exploded at the notorious Oster curve at the O-Ring circuit in Portugal last month. His car slammed into a barrier at over 200 km/h and sterling died instantly.

A legal spokesman for the sterling family said "We assert that Chas Sterling died because a tyre company supplied race tyres that were known by the manufacturer to be defective and dangerous. At the previous round of the F1 championship at Silverstone, 5 drivers suffered identical tyre failures. Those failures were unprecedented in the 63 year history of F1. The tyres used at the Portugal race were the same as the tyres used at Silverstone. We will pursue our legal rights to the fullest extant."

"My client was contracted to drive the full 20 race championship. If Sterling decided not to race he would have been in breach of his contract to his employer" the spokesman said.

The tyre company involved declined to answer any questions from journalists.

This is not a new issue for the sport of F1. In 1975 a deflating tyre led to the fatal crash of F1 ace, Mark Donohue at the Austrain GP. A jury decided that the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company should pay Mark Donohue's widow $9.6 million in damages. With interest the award amounted to $19,584,000. Interestingly the trial judge refused testimony from other F1 drivers because he considered that the drivers were not tyre experts.

I am surprised that the tyre warriors aren't complaining more about the fact that Kimi was actually hit on the helmet by tyre debris. I guess when you dont complain about something then people just dont take much notice. That would have been a much better argument for safety measures.

This whole issue is 100% Pirrelli's fault, they could have changed the tyres on safety grounds, but because of bad PR they were not willing to admit that their tyres might be unsafe.

It is not the responsibility of Ferrari, Lotus or FI to make these calls, they are just competitors. Pirelli might have been worried about PR, but they are getting much worse PR now. All they had to do was admit that the tyres might be unsafe.

Personally I think the previous delamination was much better, then these exploding tyres.

Next the FIA should be blamed for this whole mess. It is ridiculous that some teams should be punished because the tyre compounds are changed. Most of this mess could have been avoided if teams where just allowed to choose what tyres they want for every race. If one team want softer material, and another teams wants harder material then most of the responsibility would have lied with the teams, and Pirelli wouldn't have been facing all of these issues.